Tortoise - Nevada Green Turquoise

Tortoise is mint green to emerald green, blue/green, white, brown,
and red in color. It runs in a black shale, natural Berlated Cement
and a goldish brown jasper rock. There are small to giant nuggets/nodules
as well as wide and thin vein material that is encrusted by this black
and tan host rock. The host rock, being a shale type material, naturally
developed veined outsets and pockets of Chalcociderite, Turquoise
and Variscite. It is in the host where you will find webbing - veins
- swirls and shades of wonderful coloration that often look similar
to "Milkyway" or "New Lander" mine material. As
you come into the center of the deposit/formation you will find multiple
types of water marking that give the clear area of the stone its own
characteristic as well, some forms a Birdseye look.

It is a solid 6-7 in hardness and delightful to cut. Sawing the
rock is a stone cutters dream as it cuts smooth and does not flake
or crumble. Cabbing it is equally a pleasure as you do not need to
use a backing material to hold it together - it is solid! It takes
a polish like nobody's business, just like glass! In polishing these
examples I used a 180 diamond wheel, then I went to a used 400 grit
belted wheel, then strait to zam/rouge. I achieved a high polish with
very little effort. Dillon took a piece from 180 - 400 - 600 - 1800
- then to zam - it took such a terrific polish and you can actually
follow the webbing down into the stone - just beautiful!

The Tortoise mine sits above 5,000 feet elevation in a secluded
part of Midwestern Nevada. We have occasional visitors to the mine
in the form of Wild Burrows, Snakes, Birds, and Lizards. Native vegetation
includes some beautiful cactus, Mormon tea, and tumble weed. The climate
is a high-desert, hot and dry! In the winter there is a reasonable
amount of snow. We will be mining the Tortoise most months of the
year, rain, snow or hail. We are sorry to not give out more info as
to the location of the mine, but we are not letting out too much info
about this mine, due to the overwhelming piracy accruing in Nevada
right now. When we hire a few hermits to guard the mine, then we will
let more info out. :-) We have had to resort to back filling every
time we mine to ensure that nobody steals.

We have barely tapped into this mineral resource, and are already
liking what we see. As you may know, the deeper you get in a mine
usually the deeper the color and greater the quality (I am not sure
the quality could get much better, allot of this material is AAA grade)!
Most of this material we will be using in our jewelry, but we will
be letting a tiny bit of A, AA, and AAA go.

I realize these pictures are not the best, I have just had allot
of excited customers wanting to see what I pulled from the earth.
I am also sorry not to have pics of me digging, but my camera sustained
damages and I lost the pictures I had. I will get more action shots
in Nevada in October as I will be going back to the mine October 1st.
I will get better pics on this page as soon as possible, thanks for
your patience.

Example Pictures are not necessarily
the highest or lowest grade of Tortoise, rather a good example of
a common look from the Tortoise Mine. We are VERY serious about prosecuting
trespassers and thieves, so please don't even consider trying to find
this mine.